Judy Brownoff, Councillor, District of Saanich

Councillor Brownoff has been a Councillor at the District of Saanich since 1993, she has been a Director with the Capital Regional District since 1996, and a Director with the Capital Health Board since 1996. Her current responsibilities include being Chair of the Saanich Bicycle & Pedestrian Mobility Advisory; Saanich Liaison to the Ministry of Transportation; Saanich Liaison to the University of Victoria; Saanich Liaison to the School Boards; CRD Director for their Environment Committee; CRD Director for the Core Area Liquid Waste Management Committee; CRD Director for the Planning & Protective Services Committee; Chair of the CRD Community Energy Plan Committee and a Steering Committee Member on the BC Healthy Communities group. Her past experience includes being a Community Leader for the World Health Organization; working on the Age Friendly Cities Project; being a Chair on the Capital Regional District Board, the Capital Regional Health Board, the Saanich Green Building Working Group and the Victoria Regional Transit Commission. She has also been a Member of the BC Transit Board and has served as Director of the CRD Parks Committee as well as the CRD Regional Planning Committee. Her business experience includes being the owner and operater of a small business since 1980; being a past member of Sales and Marketing Executives; being a past member of Chamber of Commerce and being an evening instructor at Camosun College.

Heather Deal, City of Vancouver Councillor

Heather Deal was elected as a Parks Board Commissioner in 2002, and served as Chair in 2003. A long-time environmental educator and activist, Heather is a professional biologist with the David Suzuki Foundation. She holds a Master's of Science degree in Microbiology and spent ten years researching cancer. Heather sings in the Vancouver Bach Choir and served as president of the Choir's board of directors for several terms.

Judith H. Heerwagen, Ph.D

Dr. Heerwagen is an environmental and evolutionary psychologist whose work focuses on the links between building design and human health, well being, and productivity. Prior to starting her own business, Dr. Heerwagen was a senior research scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and a research faculty member at the University of Washington, College of Architecture and Urban Planning. She has lectured widely on sustainability and bio-centric design and is currently co-editing a book on Biophilic Design: Theory, Research and Practice to be published by John Wiley in 2007. She is the author or coauthor of numerous other articles and book chapters on workplace productivity, biophilia, and habitability. She has conducted numerous post occupancy evaluations of sustainable buildings, including the Philip Merrill Environmental Center in Annapolis, the Herman Miller Greenhouse, and Seattle City Hall. She also is working with the U.S. General Services Administration, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of California, Berkeley on the development of a protocol for assessing sustainable buildings, using organizational metrics, on site measures of physical conditions, and occupant surveys. In 2005 she was selected as an “environmental champion” by the American Society of Interior Designers.

Matt Horne, Technical and Policy Advisor with the Pembina Institute's Sustainable Communities Group

Matt's focuses include energy efficiency and electricity policy in BC, and community energy planning with municipalities and First Nation communities. Matt has worked closely with a number of small to medium sized communities on climate initiatives including Dawson Creek, Bowen Island, and Yellowknife. Prior to joining the Pembina Institute, Matt worked extensively with energy-economy models on projects attempting to estimate the costs and benefits of climate change policy in Canada. Matt holds a Master of Resource and Environmental Management from Simon Fraser University.

Alex Hutton, P. Eng, LEED AP, Sustainable Building Analyst, Stantec

As part of Stantec’s Concepts Group, Alex specialises in sustainability consulting; analysing resource and energy flows within new and existing buildings, as well as community scale developments. She assists green design initiatives through energy and thermal modeling, life-cycle cost analysis, greenhouse gas quantification, existing building audits, LEED facilitation and coordination, research, and incentive procurement.

Ron Kato MAIBC LEED AP, Project Architect, Larry McFarland Architects Ltd.

Ron was the LEED Project Manager for the first building to be awarded a LEED Platinum rating in Canada. Ron has a passion for sustainability and has developed expertise in managing, directing and integrating sustainable design efforts within significant architectural work. Ron’s firm, Larry McFarland Architects Ltd., practices primarily in the institutional sector, designing schools, advanced education, health care and projects for First Nations clients.

As an architect, Ron emphasizes the importance of creating buildings for people which meet both their functional needs and expectations and are stimulating, dynamic environments. The firm considers its’ holistic approach in the design of all commissions, which emphasizes client participation in the design process, as key to its success. Each project commences with a comprehensive pre-design process of visioning, site and existing facility analysis, site master planning and facilitation of client involvement. The firm is also committed to incorporating sustainability into all of its projects and takes care to integrate features within the fabric of the architectural expression. Recognition of Ron’s efforts includes selection of projects for which he has acted as Project Architect, which have represented Canada at each of the last two Green Building Challenge conferences, held in Tokyo in 2005, and Oslo in 2002. Ron directs sustainable design for his firm, and also chairs the Architectural Institute of British Columbia’s  Energy & Environment Committee, which acts on environmental issues in behalf of the AIBC.

Jennie Moore, Director, Sustainable Development and Environmental Stewardship at the British Columbia Institute of Technology

Jennie Moore has extensive experience in the realm of urban sustainability and has worked for the past ten years with the Greater Vancouver Regional District, most recently as Strategic Initiatives Division Manager, helping to coordinate the Sustainable Region Initiative. She has a planning degree from the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Freda Pagani, BArch, MES, PhD

Freda has an undergraduate degree in architecture and postgraduate degrees in environmental studies and resource management. She is a registered architect and a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.

Freda has worked for a variety of private architectural firms in Britain, the U.S. and Canada and for Public Works Canada. Most recently the University of British Columbia has employed her, first as Associate Director, Campus and Community Planning and subsequently as Director, Sustainability. In that capacity she founded Canada’s first Campus Sustainability Office and has successfully led the university in programs to reduce energy, water, paper and greenhouse gas emissions. The UBC Sustainability Office is widely recognized as Canada’s leader in campus sustainability. Freda has been consulted by many North American organizations and has made numerous presentations on sustainability. The University has received many honours and awards for its progress towards sustainability.

Freda has lectured widely on sustainability at universities across North America. She has been an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia for many years and is an Associate Faculty member of Royal Roads University. She has published several articles on sustainability and is in the process of writing a book on catalyzing human ingenuity for action towards a sustainable future.

Dr. John B. Robinson, Professor, Sustainable Development Research Initiative (SDRI) in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability and Department of Geography, University of British Columbia

John Robinson is Professor in the Institute for Environment, Resources and Sustainability (IRES), and the Department of Geography at UBC. He received his PhD in Geography at the University of Toronto in 1981, on the intersection of philosophy with energy policy analysis. He then worked at the University of Waterloo for 11 years, learning something about interdisciplinary research and teaching. He currently directs research programs looking at the intersection of climate change mitigation, adaptation and sustainability; the use of visualization, modeling and citizen engagement to explore sustainable futures; sustainable buildings and urban design; creating private/public/NGO and research sector partnerships for sustainability; and generally the intersection of sustainability, social and technological change, behaviour change, and community engagement processes. Dr. Robinson is a member of the Vancouver Climate Leadership Council, on the Board of the Sustainable Cities Foundation and the Pembina Institute, and on the Editorial Board of the journals Integrated Assessment, Ecology and Society and the Journal of Industrial Ecology. He is currently a Lead Author in Working Groups II and III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Jennifer Sanguinetti, P.E., P.Eng., LEED® AP, Principal, Stantec Buildings Engineering, Vancouver, British Columbia

Jennifer is one of Stantec's original environmental design leaders with over 10 years of experience in mechanical engineering. Her interest in sustainable design began when she first started with Stantec and resulted in the success of a number of energy efficient projects. She knows the importance of having buildings work with the environment, as opposed to being self-contained and working against the surroundings. Jennifer seeks low-tech solutions for her sustainable designs, and prefers to keep the design simpler, with more natural systems.

Jennifer first joined Stantec in 1994. She has worked on a variety of projects including institutional, commercial and residential work. She is particularly adept at quantifying and predicting building performance. Jennifer is one of Stantec's energy modeling specialists with considerable experience with a wide variety of simulation software and is very familiar with energy management incentive programs. She also has extensive experience with LEED and other green building certification programs, including those for new and existing buildings. She is a LEED Canada faculty member and a member of one of the Canada Green Building Council's LEED assessment teams.

She now manages Stantec's Concepts group, a team that specializes in sustainable design services, looking for opportunities to optimize a client's building for the occupants, the environment and the bottom line. She was named one of Business in Vancouver's "Top 40 under 40" achievers and entrepreneurs in 2003.

Esteban Undurraga, MASA, B.A Arch., LEED® AP, Partner @ Recollective Consulting

Originally from Chile – where he holds a professional degree in architecture from the Central University of Chile, and practiced professionally for 5 years –, Esteban later moved to Vancouver in 2000 pursuing a Master of Advanced Studies in Architecture at The University of British Columbia. His academic research focused on the intrusion of built structures in natural environments, integrating specific fields of knowledge such as architectural design, landscape ecology, planning, and green building design strategies, into an interdisciplinary framework for anticipating change and design, or not, consistently with watershed basins and their ecological integrity constraints.

After receiving his degree from UBC, and before forming Recollective Consulting,
Esteban worked with Acton Ostry Architects for three years as the In-house Sustainability Research & LEED Management co-ordinator. As a partner of Recollective, he has been actively involved in consulting to architects, developers and governing authorities on green-field developments and integrated green building & sustainable land use strategies for communities and cities.

Recently, his work has focused on a Greenfield master-planned community on Bowen Island, as well as direct consulting services to the Municipality of Bowen Island on land use strategies and green building policies. Other recent work has involved collaborating and facilitating the design for the Sustainability Framework for Beaverton, Oregon, a green building strategy (2030 Challenge) for a Comprehensive Sustainability Strategy for the City of Albuquerque, New Mexico, as well as participating in sustainability initiatives such as the 100-year Sustainability Plan for Vancouver (Cities+ Team, Gold winner – International Gas Association Competition), and Sustainable Cities 2050.

These days, he is not only focused on advancing green buildings and sustainable communities in North America, but also in providing ongoing consulting and support to the introduction and consolidation of a green building & sustainable cities knowledge base for developing countries, particularly in South America.

Kathy Wardle, MES, BA, LEED AP, Associate & Director of Research, Busby Perkins+Will

As Associate and Director of Research of Busby Perkins+Will, Kathy directs the firm's national Sustainable Design Initiative. Through her 5 years at Busby Perkins+Will she has amassed considerable experience with the LEED rating system, high performance green buildings and the Integrated Design Process, managing certification for a number of the firm's buildings including the successful LEED Gold White Rock Operations Center, and overseeing product research and feasibility studies for the firm. She has a strong commitment to sustainable design and construction and has a detailed knowledge on sustainable product procurement. Kathy is active in the local green building community and often disburses her green knowledge through courses and lectures to diverse groups and through her involvement on project integrated design teams.